Provost’s message on class cancellations

A message from Interim Provost Virginia Sapiro:

As many of you are aware, evening classes were cancelled yesterday, Thursday Feb. 16, from 4:30 p.m. on due to predictions of weather conditions that would make travel dangerous during the evening hours.

Let me clear up one misconception. Some courses had scheduled exams during the evening hours. Exam periods are defined as class periods. For any cases in which instructors administered exams beginning at 4:30 p.m. or later, students who did not attend must not be penalized in any way. Instructors should make alternative arrangements for those students. I understand that this is also likely to have caused some inconvenience. I also appreciate the fact that although we circulated the information early in the afternoon, many instructors and students did not receive the information until later, which also may have caused inconvenience.

Canceling classes due to inclement weather is a rare event on our campus. It is an especially tough call to make when the weather predictions were as uncertain as they were yesterday. The situation posed a trade-off between convenience and protection of the safety of members of our community.

Thank you for your cooperation and patience.